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Biggles and the Noble Lord/plot
Chapter 1: The Big Question There has been a series of large scale robberies involving all kinds of valuable items: gold, jewels, bank notes and even a load of whisky. Biggles believes it is the same master criminal behind these well-organised raids. Air Commodore Raymond asks him to help and so the Air Police crew brainstrom where the loot can be hidden away since they are not easily disposed of. Chapter 2: Round Table Conference Bertie gets a brainwave: in the robbery of Lady Loxton's jewels, the robber had also taken a French porcelain cake stand whose value was insignificant compared to that of the jewels. Why did he do that? He must be a collector who is genuinely interested in antiques and fine arts. Ginger suggests that they set a trap involving a fake foreign princess travelling with some jewels. Chapter 3: According to Plan So the operation is put underway. Ginger dresses up as the "Princess Lazu" and Bertie as the chaffeur, with newspapers publicising her journey from London to Scotland. Even before the journey begins, Bertie gets a "nibble" when another chauffeur at the Savoy Hotel asks if he is interested in a thousand pounds. All Bertie needs to do is walk away from the car for one minute. Ginger and Bertie set off in their Rolls on the Great North Road. At "The George" hotel at Stamford, they stop for lunch as planned. Here things happen with a suddenness which surprises them. After dropping Ginger, Bertie parks the car and is about to enter the hotel when suddenly a car pulls up. A man goes up to the Rolls, unlocks the door with a duplicate key, grabs the jewelry case (which fortunately contained only pebbles) and drives off. At the same time a van pulls up to block the Rolls. Ginger and Bertie are not worried. This is according to plan. Biggles should have seen and would be following the robber in an unmarked car. Chapter 4: Not According to Plan But things do not go according to plan. The robber's car soon pulls off into a side road and the jewel case is tossed to someone else who flies off in a helicopter. Biggles, in his car, is unable to continue the pursuit. Meanwhile Algy has been looking up auctions to inquire about collectors of old French porcelain. He attends a sale of a piece which looks like a matching piece to Lady Loxton's. It has been sold to one Lord Malboise. He decids to check out his residence, Brindon Hall and sees a helicopter descending in the vicinity. Chapter 5: Biggles is Not Impressed Biggles, Algy and Bertie take the Auster over Brindon Hall. They spot a new squarish windowless building which looks like it could house a helicopter. To get a closer look, Biggles concocts engine trouble and makes a forced landing in the grounds near the building. Soon, Lord Malboise and his brother Clarence drive out to them. Malboise offers some hospitality but Biggles politely declines, The engine problem is fixed and Biggles takes off. Bertie, it seemed, had his head down all this while on the pretext of searching for his monocle. He now gets up and tells Biggles that Clarence was in fact the "chauffeur" who tried to bribe him at the Savoy! Chapter 6: Biggles Makes a Decision Back at Scotland Yard, a check on Who's Who reveals that Clarence Malboise was a Squadron Leader who served in the Special Air Service and had made many flights into France during the War. Biggles is determined to get a closer look at that square building at Brindon Hall. So they plan to steal into the estate and climb into the place with a foldable aluminium ladder. Chapter 7: What Happened in the Park They get to the building and Biggles climbs the ladder but soon a African buffalo appraoches--Brindon Hall had a private zoo which displayed wild African animals for paying guests. Ginger is forced to join Biggles up the ladder and they are trapped on the roof. Then they hear the engine of a helicopter approaching. Biggles and Ginger hastily pull up the ladder and descend on the other side and take cover in some trees to watch the helicopter land and get pulled into the building, its hangar. Chapter 8: A Nice Glass of Sherry The next day Biggles and Algy decide to take up the Lord Malboise's open invitation for a glass of sherry. Over drinks on the terrace of Brindon Hall, Biggles notices a wall made with bricks of an unusual size and moreover, with one brick missing in the top course. But Biggles isn't the only one to be curious. Lord Malboise makes a point of admiring Biggles' shoes and their soles. Chapter 9: A Message from Ginger Leaving Brindon Hall, Biggles realizes that he has been had. Malboise must have found his footprints near that hangar and wanted to confirm that it was Biggles--and Biggles has just showed him the soles of his shoes! Meanwhile Ginger and Bertie in the office get a message from Gaskin that a major robbery has just taken place. They leave a note for Biggles then take to the air in the Auster. They spot the helicopter and follow it. Chapter 10: Trapped The helicopter does not stop at Brindon Hall but carries on to Normandy in France where it puts down near a large chateau. Bertie and Ginger can't pinpoint the spot so they decide to go down and ask for the name of the place but the Auster hits a wire when it lands--the field has been trapped! Before they know it, Clarence turns up with some men. Chapter 11: The Château de Malboise Bertie and Ginger are taken prisoner and locked up in a turret of the chateau. Clarence tells them he has to fetch Lord Malboise who will decide what to do with them. Clarence also reveals why he and his brother are doing the crimes. In particular, he feels bitter that after all he has done for the country, his family is taxed so heavily that they can't even maintain their ancestral properties. Chapter 12: Biggles Learns the Facts Back in London, Biggles is notified by Marcel that Bertie and Ginger's Auster has been found in the village of Malboise. They fly over to join Marcel and fill him in on what has happened. Biggles decides to keep the chateau under surveillance while Marcel returns to Paris to attend to other matters, promising to be back soon. Chapter 13: Lord Malboise Makes an Offer In the chateau, Ginger makes paper aeroplanes out of old letters and flies them of the window with nessages appealing for help. Lord Malboise turns up and makes offers. If he released them, would they walk away and not say anything? Would they be interested in a large sum of momey for their silence? Nothing doing. His Lordship gives them 24 hours otherwise they would have to be executed. Chapter 14: Surprises Algy finds the paper aeroplanes. Now that Biggles knows for certain where Bertie and Ginger are, he sends Algy off to contact Marcel. As night falls, Biggles spots the candle light in Ginger and Bertie's cell being shielded and unshielded, sending out an SOS. Biggles decides to fetch the torch from their Auster to reply. There he bumps into Antoine Charlot, the local gendarme, who offers to help. He tells Biggles he had been the leader of the French resistance in the area during the war and he knows of a secret underground passage into the chateau. Chapter 15: The Passage Algy comes back--he did not manage to contact Marcel but left a message for him. Antoine takes them inside the chateau through the tunnel and up to the turret where Biggles releases Bertie and Ginger. Coming down the spiral staircase, they find their way blocked by Clarence and other members of the gang. Chapter 16: The Last Stand Clarence lights a fire at the foot of the staircase to smoke them out. Things get difficult but fortunately Marcel arrives in time with a force of gendarmes. They hear a helicopter taking off but Marcel is confident it cannot get far. Of the gang members, none are to be found. Biggles surmises that some, probably Clarence and Lord Malboise himself escaped by the helicopter while the others might have used the underground tunnel. Chapter 17: The Final Reckoning It turns out Marcel isn't quite right. The helicopter is not found and Clarence and his Lordship are never seen again. At Brindon Hall, Gaskin finds a lot of the stolen loot but strangely not the gold bullion which from one of the robberies. Biggles now remembers the wall around the terrace with the unusually sized bricks. He loosens one with a hammer and scratches it, revealing the gold under the paint. Category:Plot summaries